THE Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) is on the cusp of signing a deal with top-tier Italian club AS Roma that could open the door for high-level training for Jamaica’s coaches while fostering youth development.

Yesterday, a JFF team, led by President Michael Ricketts, met with representatives of the Rome-based professional football club, for discussions said to be nearing an official agreement.

“We are trying to forge a relationship with AS Roma in keeping with the JFF mandate of developing our youth programmes,” Ricketts told the Jamaica Observer after the meeting at the JFF headquarters brokered by Lorne Donaldson, the senior Reggae Girlz assistant coach.

“We were specifically discussing coaches’ exchange programmes, strengthening our coaching programmes and educating our coaches so they can educate other coaches. The discussions are pretty much advanced and we are at the point now where we just need to get some details together, and then we’ll sign [a memorandum of understanding (MOU)].

“We’ve always thought that our coaches for our youths have not always been at the level they ought to be, and I’ve always thought that at the age of 10 and 12 we must get the best coaches. If not, they’ll start on the wrong footing,” the Jamaica football boss explained.

Ricketts confirmed that officials from Roma would have the chance to scout talent across the island, in essence becoming a feeder for the Serie A giants.

“We certainly would benefit from this whole programme of harnessing our youngsters, and they of course would extract from that group and have their talents further developed. They would have first choice for these players they would have helped us to develop,” he said.

Ricketts noted that Jamaica’s renowned athletic ability was an enticing prospect for the Italian club.

“They [the AS Roma representatives] think that Jamaica has the kind of athleticism and that they could make very good players from those with that natural ability.”

The opening of a football academy, with support from Roma, is also part of the plan.

“We are all very excited about the prospects of what could unfold after we sign this MOU. They will be assisting us and training our coaches [and] they have an interest in assisting us in setting up an academy,” Ricketts told the Observer.

“It’s something that I think will really positively impact Jamaica’s football, especially our youth programme. They [players] can be sent to [overseas-based] academies in the summer and when they come back and we keep them in an environment that will continue to prepare them,” he added.

It is not unusual for big clubs around the world to establish partnerships with national associations, thereby getting access to grass-roots talent which they can invest in instead of forking out astronomical transfer fees for players that are closer to the finished product.

“We’re excited and hopefully we can do some important stuff in Jamaica. Jamaica will benefit greatly from our know-how and our record of training players and our whole football system,” said Alex Zecca, AS Roma director of football development.

He told the Observer he is optimistic, based on what he already knows about Jamaican footballers.

“They have a lot of already good talent and we’re gonna help develop them, hopefully. We’ll train players, we’ll make them better and we’ll get to see them first-hand. We saw quite a bit of film before we came here to prepare for the meetings, so we have a pretty good handle on the level. Individually, it’s very good, very raw, but it needs work and we’re prepared to do it,” Zecca said.

Massimo Tarantino, director of youth football at AS Roma, and Michael Pallotta, the Italian club’s football development co-ordinator, were also at the meeting.